Environment of Care, Construction and Remediation
30/30 Education Session - 30 minutes
Christy Wisdom, MSN RN CIC FAPIC LSSBB
Infection Preventionist
Arkansas Children's
Little Rock, Arkansas
Nothing to disclose
Beth Wallace, MPH, CIC, FAPIC
Senior Director, System Infection Prevention & Epidemiology
Beaumont Health
Rochester Hills, Michigan
Nothing to disclose
Designing, constructing, and opening a new pediatric hospital facility is a daunting task and requires extensive planning, research, collaboration, and input from knowledgeable content experts. Although an IP’s involvement and knowledge during a hospital’s design and commissioning are often undervalued, their input and recommendations are increasingly important to ensure patient safety and meet regulatory requirements. This can be especially challenging while building a pediatric facility as kid-friendly designs and features often compete with IPC principles. Moreover, keeping administrators, leaders, and frontline staff engaged during the process can be challenging due to competing priorities.
This session helps guide IPs through all steps in the design and construction phase, program implementation, and transition to patient care while engaging staff and leadership. Resources for regulatory compliance and best practice implementation will be identified along with strategies to facilitate effective collaboration when competing interpretations of requirements occurs. Barriers to success and methods for preparing and executing an effective IP program will be discussed.
Participants will also learn what works well and get customizable tools for a successful transitioning of the environment that will help the new hospital be survey ready.